Medieval Europe History

This conviction was carried over into a rejection of the monastic practices of celibacy and fasting, as they have nothing to do to with gaining salvation in Luther's interpretation. Luther even questioned the validity of confession to clerics and certain Catholic sacraments. .
             By openly questioning the practices and purpose of the universal church with the aid of the printing press, Luther and the Reformists marked a broken sense of a unified Christian society. In the wake, many groups sprung up, each with their own ideal of what a church's role should be. Though not his original intent, Luther's reforms birthed a German Protestant Church, separate and distinct from the Catholics. This new division of Christianity brought with it a new line of fresh thinking, one of realism that abandoned old superstitions in favor of a sober, serious, rational, and "true" Christianity. In addition, the Reformation altered the manner in which people placed power. While the church argued that power lies in the tradition and authority of institutions, Luther continued his argument that scripture alone had authority, opening the door for individuals to conceive of their beliefs as being as viable as those of any institution (if not .
             more so). This paved the way for all types of divergent beliefs to openly develop into institutions of their own, whether expressing their divergence relatively peacefully (as in the case of the Genevan flock of Calvin, who details points of contention with the Catholics in Institutes of the Christian Religion) or violently (as in the case of the Anabaptists in the Peasant's Revolt of 1524-1525 C.E.). Without the Reformation's introduction of the initiative that long-standing institutions could be directly challenged by the individual, none of this would have been possible.
             While medieval Europe would have considered overtly breaking with the Catholic Church to be heresy (and many of Luther's Catholic contemporaries did think these breaks were heretical), many trends of the Reformation were simply continuations of the past.